Hurt Me
by Arcion
Summary: Hayate has chosen to be with Athena, Hinagiku finally lets her friends know why she's responded the way she has to this in song.  AU from the fic I hope to be writing soon.
1. Hurt

_Hurt Me_

_By LeAnn Rimes_

_Fic Bastion_

"Come on Hina-chan, we haven't had fun singing since.. In a while." Izumi encouraged.

"I suppose." She answered, letting her friends drag her to the karaoke box they used so often.

The trio took up their usual energy upon entering the room, choosing the first several songs for her to sing.

After which the trio sang some of their usual songs while Hina sulked in her seat, barely listening while the energy in the room dwindled.

Finally they offered her the mike again and tried to get her to sing another song to close out the afternoon.

She flipped half-heartedly flipped through the book of offered songs until she happened upon a song in english that seemed to call out to her.

She took the offered microphone and dragged the offered stool behind the mike-stand while the song loaded up.

'Hurt me.

Why in the world did you,

Hurt me.'

When she'd been growing up, those she'd grown to love had eventually hurt and left her, so she eventually closed off her heart to keep from being hurt anymore.

Her parents had disappeared when their debt had become to large for them to handle. Her older sister had managed to pay off the debt, but then had turned to the bottle and continually asked her for money.

'Just when I thought I'd found someone to trust,

You took away your love.'

And then Hayate had appeared in her life, and on her birthday had shown her that she still had the ability to love someone like she had in the past.

'And, hurt me.

Still can't believe you,

Hurt me.'

And then he had decided to go to Athena's side with his love, and had abandoned everything he had here in Japan to go to Athens with Athena.

'Just when I thought it was safe to come in,

You let me want you, and need you, and then,

You left me, like a child in the rain,

Now I'm mending myself of the pain.'

He'd taught her to overcome her fear of heights as well as in love. Now she'd had the curtains in the student council room replaced with darker ones because she couldn't even stand to look at the balcony, and she'd completely lost her ability to cope with heights of any sort.

'Oh, you hurt me'

Even getting into the elevator to get to the office was hard for her. She'd gotten colder to all but her closest friends as well, as the walls of her heart had gone back up stronger than ever, even Koutaro had given up his fondness for her.

'Yes, you left me,

Like a child in the rain.

Now I'm lost in an ocean of pain.'

This hadn't been the first attempt by the trio to try and get her to cheer back up, and none of them had worked. This time she was getting to express why she was so down.

'Oh, you hurt me.

I fell in love and it,

Hurt me.'

Whether it was enough to stop them from continuing to try, she didn't know.

'Can't you imagine how I'm feeling now?

Oh, will you ever know how.

You, hurt me.'

Her voice finally broke on the final note, but she did manage to hold back her tears.

Until she saw all three of them standing and approach her. Releasing a hiccup was all the time it took for the three to meet her in a group hug and she felt safe enough to let someone else see her crying. Even her adopted mother hadn't been allowed to see it yet.

Izumi had fallen to full-blown weeping, and Hinagiku let herself get caught in it. Even Miki was unable to keep from releasing a few tears for her friends, and the four walked out of the building with their arms around each other.

_I'm not a fan of the Athena/Hayate pair, if the tone of the fic isn't enough to tell that. She's the only one who could conceivably take him away, thus preventing any of the other girls from having anything close to a happy ending. Hinagiku would be the worst hit by it._

_I have a full-blown HnG fic simmering in the brain-box and this is an AU from that one, I'd just gotten so struck by this song that everything wanted me to write it down. Hopefully the real fic will be coming soon._


	2. Healing

Hinagiku sighed as she picked up the mail on her way in the door. "Bill, Junk, Invite, bill." She recited to herself as she flipped through the pieces of paper. Each piece filtered into its own place, either on the table to be dealt with later, or the garbage can.

"10 year Reunion." She read from the invitation. "Well, I haven't seen any of them since we all graduated, so I guess I'll go."

Even sitting alone at the bar, the guys she'd once known were still entranced by her beauty, and the dress she'd bought herself just kept enough skin from being revealed to keep her decent. Any time one of them got the courage to approach her though, they turned away without a word of exchange. Eventually someone did approach her though.

"Hina-chan!"

The mask she'd grown so used to wearing was easily slipped on as she turned around to greet her old friend, and then it slipped when she noted the other woman.

"Hina-chan!" Izumi called again, waving for her to come join in the circle of old friends. Hinagiku stood and began to approach the group, when a flash of blue caught her eye, and she turned to look.

'He's here.' Her mind shouted, but the better glimpse also revealed who he was with, even without seeing the golden curls, the attention of every guy in the room told her exactly who he was with, and she knew that her mask would break if she were to see that girl again.

Not wanting to start a fight, she turned back to the trio she'd started to move towards and joined them. Izumi, with Koutaro standing beside her, Risa and Kotetsu and Miki all greeted her with the friendship she remembered them having in the past.

As if she'd forgotten who they were, the guys were introduced, Koutaro had become Izumi's husband while she'd been away at school, and now the pair had a trio of daughters, which they were proud to show pictures of, with a fourth well on the way, and Hinagiku couldn't help but make the playful jab about Koutaro having four beautiful women around him, to which he only smiled about. Kotetsu and Risa had finally revealed themselves as a couple somewhere along the line, and the comment on how Hayate would have liked that development was delivered by Miki. And when the topic of Miki's own romantic endeavors was brought up, it was answered with a cold glare and an off-hand comment about them having other responsibilities that prevented their appearance.

After the greetings, a lot of reminiscing about the past and current activities took place and Hina'd almost forgotten that she'd seen him, until she felt a presence standing behind her. "Hayata-kun," Izumi greeted happily, "and Athena.. –san." she finished, sensing the cold her friend was now releasing in waves.

"Athena-san." She said, turning around and greeting the golden-haired woman. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I am the head chairman, if I want to attend one of these, I should have every right to. Plus this is my love's graduating class, so it only makes sense that I would choose to attend this one."

"Hello again everyone, Hinagiku-san." Came the all-too-familiar voice.

"Same old Hayate-kun." She muttered, mumbling some comment about needing to find the washroom, she left the party and wandered the school halls aimlessly, trying to regain her calm.

"I loved you Hayate, but you just left." She cried to herself.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Everyone else knew. Everyone else could see it, why couldn't you?" She responded, thinking she was only talking with herself. She gasped when a pair of arms encircled her waist, and the voice again whispered it's apology. She repeated herself as the tears finally broke through, her cheeks and the sleeves quickly getting soaked.

She turned around, making sure the arms stayed around her waist as she did. There were so many things she wanted to do to him, but she restrained herself, realizing she'd have to be content with just being held, especially after seeing the other figure standing behind him.

"I didn't realize he was playing such a large role in everyone's life." Athena began. "After you left, I had Hayate chase after you and the others tell me what went on."

"We can't go and change the past, but we can try to make the future brighter." She continued. Some kind of signal must have passed between the other two, because his grip on her form slackened and Hinagiku opened her eyes to see him offering her what appeared to be a business card.

"While we have to go back to Athens, you can write to us there and we'll get back to you. It won't be the same as having him with you, but at least you'll be able to communicate."

"Thanks." She answered, taking the card and then pulling herself away from Hayate to give the other woman a hug.

"Should we go back to the party then?" He suggested. The two girls shared a look and giggled, grabbing a hand each and having him lead the way back. Athena was brought a chair and the memories resumed to be shared.

As they moved to the doors, Hayate and Hinagiku were left behind, and suddenly they found themselves alone together.

It was only natural for the two of them to turn towards each other. "Hayate." She whispered, slowly moving in to kiss him, only to stop at the last moment and cover his mouth with her hand. "We shouldn't."

"But-"

"But you have Athena, it wouldn't be right." She responded, her voice cracking with the effort of restraining herself.

She was reminded of the view from the tower balcony when she'd realized that she loved him, only this time, his face was very close to hers, it would be so easy to kiss him, and if someone walked in on them, it would be simple to explain it off as a mistake.

She started to pull back, only to be surprised when he grabbed her wrist and pulled the hand away from his lips, but took a detour and instead left a kiss on her cheek.

She walked out into the night air warmed by the blush that would remain until she had taken leave of her senses for the night.

Several months had passed since saying good-bye that night, but things had gotten significantly better. Her students had even commented on how she now seemed happier, and classes were now more fun. Even living had seemed to grow easier since she and Hayate had begun to communicate again, and when the doorbell unexpectedly rang one night, she actually jumped up to answer the door rather than responding slowly like she had always done before.

The persons behind the door improved her mood even more. "You're back!" She cried, wrapping the male in a large hug.

"And not just for a visit this time." He answered.

At her look changing to questioning, the other figure started to fill in those questions. "Sorry it took so long, but now we're living in Japan again."

"But you didn't say anything about it in your letters?" She answered, leading them into the living room.

"Because we wanted to surprise you." Athena answered. "I actually ordered Hayate not to let you know."

"Well, it definitely worked." She smiled.

She was just fighting down the blush of her reaction to Athena's implications of how far things had gone with Hinagiku's new boyfriend when the doorbell rang again.

"Another unexpected guest?"

There was only a momentary glimmer of someone standing in the doorway before a golden streak flashed by her.

"Nagi-chan, Hayate-kun already has blue hair, the rest of him doesn't need to be blue as well." She sighed, closing the door and following the younger woman's path back to the others.

"O- Nagi-san." He smiled, taking the younger girl into a hug. "It's good to see you again." He blinked suddenly. "But don't you know that it's normally good manners to take your shoes off before entering a house, especially someone else's."

Nagi took a step back, bowed to Hinagiku and apologized before walking back to the entryway to switch her shoes.

"Your former master has become quite the business woman, she even earned her chair on the school council through her own means." Hinagiku made sure the statement was taken without venom.

"It did hurt when you left, Hayate." The younger girl said as she returned and sat down. "But Maria and I managed, and she says I grew stronger because of it."

"I'm sorry Ou- Nagi-chan, I failed in my promise to always protect you."

"But you didn't fail in making me a stronger person." She answered, sitting down beside the blue-haired-boy.

Hinagiku put her fist to her chest. "And she gained friends she could count on if her own strength failed her."

The night progressed as the talk continued between the array of primary colors around the room, Hayate was the one who finally noticed the time and said something about it. "I think we've taken up enough of Hinagiku-san's night. Remember, she's the one who actually has to get up in the morning."

The woman with hair of red smirked at that, even though she knew that Hayate would be staying up later, by his own choice, and probably be up long before she even had a conscious thought, his statement was essentially true. The group said their goodbyes and exited.

Hinagiku herself suited Hayate's words and began to ready herself for bed, thanking whatever deity was watching for allowing the events of the past few months to be so great, and hoping that they would continue to be.

Less than a week later, while the girls and their respective mates were once again enjoying an evening of songs at their favorite karaoke box, Hinagiku found another reason to enjoy life, wrapped in a small purple-velvet box.

_Was left with an uncomfortable sense that I was leaving readers with a sense that I disliked Athena, when it was really just about how everyone, especially Hina-tan, would be hurt by Hayate leaving. So I finally wrote this part just to make it clear that I don't._

_In fact, Athena is one of my favorite characters just below Hinagiku, so I needed to make sure I made her lovable here._


End file.
